Scoop: Armisen Sightings and Return of the Kimchee

1. ARMISEN WATCH CONTINUES: We weren’t actually going to mention that Portlandia’s Fred Armisen was hanging out at the Rebecca Gates and the Consortium/Ted Leo show at Backspace on Saturday night. But when he got behind the drums and played a song with Gates during her MFNW set—quite ably, we might add—he kinda left us no choice. It’s not the first time the former Spinanes frontwoman has played alongside the SNL vet: He joined her during a NYC residency five years ago and, according to Gates, actually filled in as a Spinane in the ’90s. Weird? It gets weirder. Ted Leo was also a Spinane.

1. STAGE HANDS: White Bird Dance co-founders Paul King and Walter Jaffe have earned the awkwardly titled Jerry Willis Achievement Award for artistic excellence, distinguished leadership and extraordinary vision, for bringing some of the top names in contemporary dance to Portland over the past 14 years. >> Local actor Carlos Alexis Cruz has been awarded a $5,000 Princess Grace Theater Fellowship for his work with the Miracle Theatre Group.

1. DOWNTOWN DINING: Popular coffeehouse Floyd’s has opened a “walk-up window” at Southwest 3rd Avenue and Salmon Street. >> Popular Belmont food cart EuroTrash has opened a second cart at Southwest 10th Avenue and Washington. >> Former Goose Hollow Japanese eatery Kalé has announced it is reopening in a yet-to-be-disclosed location downtown.

1. FUTURE DRINKING: Mynt Gentlemen’s Club is becoming Syren’s Gentlemens Club. Is there an apostrophe shortage? >> Bistro Asian, a restaurant around the corner from Montgomery Park, is becoming Aki’s Noodle House. >> Lisa Lavochkin has applied to open Barrel, a bottle shop, in St. Johns. >> Ryan Pawley has applied to open a bar called the High Dive at 1406 SE 12th Ave. (one block north of Hawthorne) in a former law office.

1. BACK IN BHAP: Awesomely named Korean food cart Kim Jong Grillin’ burned down in a blaze of Morissette-ian irony in March of this year—just as owner Han Ly Hwang was receiving the judges’ choice award at WW’s Eat Mobile festival—but the Taepodong Hot Dogs will live on. Han has announced he will be opening a bricks-and-mortar establishment at Southeast 49th Avenue and Division Street, a block from where the cart stood. According to a note on his Facebook page, the new venture—slated to open in October—will be called Bhap Sang PDX, and will serve the same lunch items as Kim Jong Grillin’ as well as a new dinner menu.

WWeek 2015